On Pneumatic Theanthopology

June 9, 2018

Ambrose Andreano

In the following entry, I offer my mystical understanding of pneumatic theanthropology. What I mean by this term is the contemplation of a future divinized human existence energized through synergy with the Holy Spirit. It is the contemplation of theosis, and the divine intent for Adam. Mystical theology works the miraculous: For in giving vision to the visionless, it gives sight to the blind. In giving transcendentalism to the horse-like, removing the earthy blinkers which prevent us from looking to the spiritual, it gives flight to those bound by gravity.

The Fall into Division

Though it is true that mankind fell from God, it is often overlooked that mankind fell out of itself, and from one another (and this is because mankind fell specifically from union with the Holy Spirit). Because of this, the human being must look within and return to paradise with Christ in the Spirit. For as the Savior said, “The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation,” and, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). However, the Serpent came to separate Eve from Adam, and to cause division from within unity; to cause the one to become two. When woman fell by that persuasive serpentine self-deception: a chaotic storm of choosing ensued which invades us all from within the mind, and man by will chose to fall with her. Thus, mind (represented as the feminine wisdom of Eve) and will (represented as the masculine power of Adam) fell together, the latter following the former. This is why, generally speaking, males must fight to balance an unruly testosterone with feminine wisdom, and women must fight to balance a timid estrogen with masculine willpower. However, in Adam and Eve falling together, the two (now being two) fall alone, for mankind can never fall except as many and alone, ever expanding away from the other. When man and woman drift apart, it is an expansion of inner cosmos; a departure from theanthropic oneness with the Spirit. This is a departure of mind from will; wisdom from power. Wisdom and power, given to the stewardship of humanity, cease to be proper extensions of the Spirit of God when humanity severed their links from divine purpose. Instead, they become chaotic and isolated forces that are disconnected from God’s holy order. Our ability to perceive the world begins to descend into darkness. Our fall from Light has even made our ocular senses inverted and incapable of perceiving certain color wavelengths. Motion was slowed, sensory experience became divided, and all of a sudden eyes cannot hear, ears cannot see, touch cannot taste, we cannot but hope to one day hear the ontological music which emanates from others, and our minds lost the divine energy of the Spirit needed to maintain such a theanthropic union with the Logos in the Father.

Adam following Eve into destruction was synonymous with Power divorcing Wisdom, as it now does by nature, for one struggles to be both powerful and wise. Man and woman fell from one another, and the disunity ripped a tear in the cosmos. When Power is given dominion without Wisdom at his side, peaceful dominion becomes tyrannical domination. Mankind was supposed to have dominion over the bestial instincts within. But Wisdom fell from the mountain top, and the mind was irresistibly drawn to satisfying the lusts of the flesh being provoked by the lusts of the eye, and we are weighed down, now bound by gravity, into the pride of life. However, affections fell from things above to things below. When Wisdom fell to fleshly desires, Dopamine bowed to a different king: one like the grazing Nebuchadnezzar rather than one like the Son of Man. For as Christ once said, “Man cannot serve two masters. He will love the one and hate the other” (Matt. 6:24Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). Either mankind would have dominion over the animal, or the animal will have dominion over mankind. And ever since the fall, mankind, like the beasts, has been in pursuit of nothing but the fleshly pleasures of the eye, the belly, and the genitals. But from the beginning this was not so, rather, mankind was meant to maintain satisfaction in God through synergy with the Spirit of God. The scientists of our day would have us believe that in the beginning, animals became man. Whether or not this is true, the opposite is certainly true.

The man and the woman were to be the divine heralds; ruling in equality as the very gatekeepers of balance and order for these cosmological energies such as mind and will, wisdom and power, yin and yang. Mankind is cosmos within cosmos, having within him vines and stones in his arms, branches for bones, grass on his head, the sun and moon and stars in his skull, the cross in his blood, a mountain in his chest, and eyes that peer into the galaxy. It is the outward world that is an extension and manifestation of mankind’s relationship with the Holy Spirit which hovers over and within, generating the movements and life from deep within and over the earth. When man becomes corrupt, he rejects synergy with the Spirit, and the earth groans and the stones cry out. When these cultivators (being themselves microcosms) fail at their task, there is cosmological consequence, and the storms from without originate from the storms within. The disorder of the universe is reflective merely of the disorder within, and for Christ to save the one, He saves the other.

The Rise into Union

Ever since the genesis of our Adamic condition, there presently exists three important distinctions at play when we speak of God. However, such distinctions are not in God, but in the trifold fracture of man in his fallen state. That is, when man fell, he fell from a three-storey mountain: 1) God as He objectively is in Himself. 2) God as He objectively and pastorally descends to fallen man via economy, 3) God as His economy is subjectively perceived by man looking upward. Theosis, union with God, would therefore radically unite our fragmented perception into the whole of the Godhead by union with the Spirit and the Logos unto the Father. Thus, we shall be like God, for we shall see Him as He is (cf. 1 John 3:2Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). When one is subsumed into Christ like a black hole of the Father’s apophaticism, there is no need for distinctions, there is no economy of the One God to the many men and women of planet Earth, there is only The One Godman. For as the Apostle has said, “There is neither…male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). And again he says, bringing plural to singular, “Ye are the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). We become bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. The end of man and woman (though this is ultimately the beginning) is to exist in the Light of Triune Oneness (man, woman, and divinizing Spirit) in a mystically-linked psychophysiology with the Triune God (Father, Son, Spirit). The two not truly being two, nor three, but one, for they were of one flesh and one mind. The Spirit’s ways are Adam’s ways, and the Spirit’s thoughts are Adam’s thoughts. Adam’s ways are Eve’s ways, and Adam’s thoughts are Eve’s thoughts. The secret in the mind and experience is a thing that ceases to be, and the hidden things are no more. All is revealed in all and for all when the union of all occurs. All were intended to be one and undefiled: linked and synchronized. The one (divinized humanity) in The One (Holy Trinity).

In the future theanthropic state, our eyes will not merely see what is in front of us and nothing more, but they will be able to see in a spherical 360 degrees, having vision shared with others, with their vision added onto our periphery like a vast panorama. However, this panoramic periphery will always be in focus, for there is nothing we will not see clearly. We will no longer be bound by gravity or the present limitations of a distinctly material existence, for as Paul says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). Pleasure will not consume, it will satisfy. The Tree of Life having but one fruit for all to share, and but one bite for all to be satisfied (for Adam and Eve grew more hungry with every bite). Our corporeal flesh will be thinner and more transparent, that the Light of Christ will shine through, and expose the colors of our inner being like phosicons and stained glass windows. For in being the Church, we are not only worshipers, but also the ornaments and the temple itself. Every person having their own unique ontological colors which have never been seen before. Indeed, they cannot be perceived but by transfigured eyes: eyes not of flesh alone, but of a divinized spiritual materiality. And when two or more are gathered in Christ’s name, their colors overlay, and a new color is formed meet for the synergy between the persons. It is important to understand that (despite everyone having a unique color) when two are gathered, they are not two colors, but one. Not three, but one. And these colors are not like ours, for these colors do not benefit the eyes only, for they penetrate the ear and music can be heard, penetrate the nose and can be smelled, the mouth and tasted, etc. The theanthropic human being will radiate with all that they are like an aura of prayerful incense, and they will reflect in their person the various sensory dynamics of the timeless celestial liturgy of the New Jerusalem.

The preordained ideal was for Adam’s experiences to be Eve’s experiences, and Eve’s experiences Adam’s, linked together by mutual union with the Logos, being in the Father through the Spirit. Being unique in personhood, yet having their conscious experiences and memory shared by love through the Spirit. Presently, our minds store memories upon the brain like a flash drive, and each individual has their own. However, there will come a day when we will not use individual flash drives, and we will all be linked to the worldmind, that is, the Logos, like one shared drive where all hidden things are revealed. Our memories, as a result of the fall, became merely our own and not also another’s, rendering nostalgia, for example, a lonely, dividing, and distant phenomenon, for who else can share in the selfsame experience except the individual? Nostalgia is something that must be experienced, as it cannot be explained, because the experience is what defines the explanation. But in our transfigured theanthopic state, this will not be so, for we shall not be ourselves alone, but we shall all be one in Christ. And in being one with Christ, we are one with each other. Therefore, I suppose nostalgia will be shared by all in a truly experiential fashion, for we shall not interact with varying levels of empathy. My joy will broaden your joy, and your joy will broaden mine, and all will experience an expansion of the heart: not unto the distance and separation of one another, as was formerly the case, but rather the widening capacity to give and receive love and joy. The cosmos will not feel so large, nor will it make us feel so small, for our eyes will be fixed on God. The rural towns of distant planets, separated by great spaces, will all one day become one city of God. The angelic planetary order will be revolving around that Tree of Life, upon which hangs a slain Lamb for all to humbly receive forevermore.

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Ambrose Andreano

I'm an Orthodox Christian whose patron saint is Ambrose of Milan. My main interests are patristics, church history, theology, philosophy, apologetics, and hermeneutics. My Myers-Briggs type indicator is INTJ, and I'm a 5 on the Enneagram. I currently live in Pennsylvania with my wonderful wife Katie, my daughter Nora, my son Abel, and we attend Holy Apostles Orthodox Church (OCA).

The mystical theology of the text is to “hear” the roar of a lion, only to “turn and see” a slain lamb as the source.

About Me

I'm an Orthodox Christian whose patron saint is Ambrose of Milan. As founder of The Patristics Project, my main interests are patristics, church history, theology, philosophy, apologetics, and hermeneutics. My Myers-Briggs type indicator is INTJ, and I'm a 5 on the Enneagram. I currently live in PA with my wonderful wife Katie, my daughter Nora, my son Abel, and we attend Holy Apostles Orthodox Church (OCA).